We Need to Keep Building this Sukkah - December 2018 - Liturgy #3

Adonai, our God, let us sleep in peace; our Watchkeeper, let us wake up to life. Spread over us a sukkah of peace. Hashkiveinu, evening liturgy

At a recent clergy meeting, convened by Reform Jewish Voice of New Jersey, the rabbis around the table were asked what they felt to be the most pressing social justice issue.  One rabbi said that we could not tackle any of the other vital issues until we first restored civility in our discourse; until we found a way to listen to each other with respect.  That has long been a goal here at Temple Sholom.  As opposed to congregations that shun conversations about politics, we have tried to be a safe place where we can all share our views, no matter how diverse.

We have not always succeeded - and we need to do better.  The Sages teach that the Second Temple was destroyed two thousand years ago, because of sinat chinam - baseless hatred between one and another.

The prayer hashkiveinu was meant to be said each evening before going to bed.  The Sages viewed sleep as one sixtieth of death.  When we are asleep and unconscious we are vulnerable and there is that fear that one morning we may not wake up.  Each night, we ask God to construct a shelter of peace for us - a sukkah.  That sukkah is our protection, our blanket of comfort, but each morning it disappears and that night we have to ask for it again.

Peace is a sukkah - a temporary structure that only lasts so long, and that we must rebuild.  The safe conversational space is also a sukkah.  With each person, in each conversation, we must remember our guidelines of kavod (respect) and b’tzelem elohim (that each of us is created equally in the Divine image).  A conversation in which we respect another’s right to hold a different opinion and acknowledge that they are as human as we are takes constant attention, rebuilding, and has to go both ways.

Both ways - not only must we be able to listen to opinions that are different than our own, without judging the person who is speaking, but also, when speaking, we should not imagine we know how are words are being received.  

In Pirkei Avot 1:6, Yehoshuah ben Perachayah says, “ וֶהֱוֵי דָן אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לְכַף זְכוּת Judge each and every person as if they had full merit.” We may not understand what they have chosen to believe.  We may be baffled by the way they have reached their beliefs. However, that makes them no more or less human than we are.  If we are hurt by someone else’s belief, or perceive their belief as harmful to us or someone we care for, we can express that, but we must also acknowledge that our beliefs - or even our disbelief of their positions - might make them feel fear and hurt as well.

The requirement of the sukkah is that it be open - open to admit others, a shelter for all, but also, we must be able to look up through the roof of our sukkot and see the stars.  The safe space of peace that we build and rebuild together is a place where we can look together to the heavens that we imagine as our goal on earth. On Shabbat, the chatimah of the hashkiveinu ends: Blessed are You, Adonai our God, the One who spreads out a sukkah of peace - over us, over Jerusalem, over all Israel, and all the world.

(See this column from summer 2016 for our Temple Sholom Jewish values for respectful conversation.)